This story is from April 14, 2006

CDMA, landline lobby group knocks Trai door

Sanjay Anand / TNN / Apr 14, 2006, 00:58 IST

Share

AA

Text Size

Small
Medium
Large

CDMA and landline operators' lobby group Auspi has made a strong plea to Trai that BSNL should be asked to provide PoI.

CDMA, landline lobby group knocks Trai door

NEW DELHI: CDMA and landline operators' lobby group Auspi has made a strong plea to Trai that BSNL should be asked to provide PoIs (points of interconnect) to private firms on demand.
Auspi, which includes leading telecom firms like Bharti, Reliance and Tatas, have been complaining for long that BSNL is slow in providing PoIs, which impedes growth and rapid rollout of their networks, especially in rural areas.
"We met Trai chairman Nripendra Misra and apprised him of various industry issues,"said Auspi chairman SC Khanna. "For us, lack of timely interconnection with BSNL has become a big issue,"said Khanna.
He said Auspi members have about 29 million subscribers and they were not just another small 'seeker of PoIs', but almost equal partner telecom sector's growth. "In fact, it is not just Auspi issue.

It is entire private industry's problem, which has about 98 million subscribers out of a total of 140 million. By being slow and not providing PoIs on time, BSNL is losing revenues," he said.
CDMA operators also sought Trai's help in allocation of 1900 MHz (US PCS) band for moving on to 3G services that offer high speed connectivity. Worldwide, GSM operators like Airtel and Hutch operate 3G services in 1800 MHz band. Over 70% of the cellphone operate on GSM standard and follow that growth path to 3G.

The allocation of frequency band has been a bone of contention between the two lobbies. Both bands are occupied by defence in India. Recently, defence has agreed to vacate the 1800 MHz band but not the US PCS band and CDMA operators are sore over this point.
"Auspi strongly recommends that 1900 MHz band should also be vacated by defence. 1900 MHz is the only band other than 800 MHz where CDMA equipment is available and used worldwide," said Khanna.
Auspi has also asked Trai to eliminate ADC (access deficit charge) which private operators pay to BSNL from their STD/ISD rates after collecting it from subscribers, so that it can provide subsidised phones in rural areas.
The industry has also been pleading for lowering of taxes. At 19-28% (plus sales tax), Indian industry is among the highest tax payers in the world.

End of Article

FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA